Peel’s records to be made public

ONE of the most revered record collections in the world owned by renowned DJ John Peel is to be made into an interactive online museum.

The anthology, which includes 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and thousands of CDS, will be made public as part of The Space – an experimental digital service organised and funded by the Arts Council and BBC.

The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, in Stowmarket, and its project partner Eye Film and Television have been granted funding for the project and given exclusive access to the records by the broadcasting legend’s family.

Tom Barker, director of the John Peel Centre, said: “It is the first step in creating an interactive online museum with access to the entire collection, which is one of the most important archives in modern music history.”

The Arts Council has provided a ‘substantial sum of money’ for the work and the BBC will give support and development advice.

Further funding will the be sought to complete the project and make every record available online.

Eye Film and Television, which has a long-standing relationship with the Peel family after working on a number of television projects with him, will join forces with the centre, musicians and fans to create the digital content.

Frank Prendergast, creative director for Eye, said: “The idea is to digitally recreate John’s home studio and record collection, which users will be able to interact with and contribute to while viewing his personal notes, archive performances and new filmed interviews with musicians.”

Sheila Ravenscroft, Mr Peel’s widow and patron of the centre, added: “We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans as he would have wanted. This project is only the beginning of something very exciting.”